1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to kitchen appliances and, more particularly, to food processors for chopping and mixing food products.
2. Description of Related Art
Various known food processors exist that comprise, generally, a base housing an electric motor, a drive system, a rotatably driven blade, a bowl, a lid, a feed chute, and a feed pusher. The feed chute allows food to be introduced into the bowl while the lid engages the bowl and while the blade is rotating. This contains chopped food product inside the bowl and prevents user's hands from entering the bowl while the device is operating, since the chute is sized so that a user's hand cannot fit through it.
While the rotatable driven blade may be in any one of various known forms, a common form is a flat disc that has a radially extending gap of which the edge leading toward the rotational direction is used to cut or slice food product. The leading edge is off-set from the plane of the rest of the disc so that it defines a slice thickness. Typically the gap is formed be press cutting a single metal sheet that forms the disc and bending the area that attaches the leading edge to the rest of the disc. Sometimes an attachment is fixed to the disc. In either form, the slice thickness gap is fixed and constant. As a result, owners of food processors are required to purchase more than one disc in order to have the capability of producing more than one slice thickness.